Indigenous Center for Lumads Decry Military Abuses, Attacks Against Schoolchildren

Indigenous Center for Lumads Decry Military Abuses, Attacks Against Schoolchildren

Soldiers belonging to the 73rd Infantry Battalion forced 10-year old Jimboy Saya to hold a chain of sub-machine gun bullets and carry an M-16 rifle. The soldiers then photographed the child and distributed it to local media with the caption “NPA child warrior going to school in Dlumay.”
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com
Evidently not content with tagging ordinary civilians as members of the New People’s Army (NPA), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) continue to use children in its campaign to demonize the revolutionary forces.

According to a report by Katribu Party-list, soldiers belonging to the 73rd Infantry Battalion forced 10-year old Jimboy Saya to hold a chain of sub-machine gun bullets and carry an M-16 rifle. The soldiers then photographed the child and distributed it to local media with the caption “NPA child warrior going to school in Dlumay.”

Jimpoy is a Blaan student living in the remote village of Dlumay.

Katribu Party-list has released a statement saying that this was the latest in a series of vicious and systematic acts of harassment the 73rd IB against has perpetrated against the Center for Lumad Advocacy and Services (CLANS) and its projects in the communities it serves in Upper Suyan, Malapatan, Sarangani Province.

The organization of indigenous people said that since November 2010, Clans staff, schoolchildren and their parents, and community leaders have been subjected to interrogation, harassment, vilification and ridicule.
“The soldier even went as far as ordering a Blaan family to exhume their dead pastor, who died of lingering illness, because he was suspected as an NPA killed in action,” said Clans.

Staff members of Clans said they tried to document these atrocities in detail.

“For the past months we have been trying hard to stand our ground in defense of our school and our community against against the platoon of gun-toting government soldiers who would not let us have a day of peace,” they said..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/03/25/indigenous-center-for-lumads-decry-military-abuses-attacks-against-schoolchildren/